A New Kind Of Resolution

It’s 2023! A time of fresh starts, new gym memberships, and earnest hopes about our long lists of goals.

While I love New Year’s resolutions, it doesn’t take long before the promises we made to the January 1st version of ourselves, turn into forgotten burdens….

This year, as I’ve been reflecting on last year and looking ahead to 2023, God has been challenging me to look at this New Year differently. In 2022, God taught me a lot by letting things be taken away. Friendships, accomplishments, ego, hopes - while that could easily sound depressing, I finished 2022 more fulfilled than ever. I didn’t check everything off the list made on January 1, 2022. I grieved the many idols that God knocked down. But, I now have so much MORE than the things I lost. Both in physical provisions, relationships, and blessings, but also in the fullness of knowing and trusting God more deeply.

God taught me by letting things be taken away, and pushing me to see Him as the King of my heart, rather than the many things in life that can take that place.

So this year, as I prepared to eagerly make my long list of what I hope to do, my heart felt the need to pause. Maybe this year the main resolution isn’t about adding the new gym membership or taking on that promotion - maybe this year, God is inviting us to let go and surrender to HIS will, instead of trying to add to our life based on OUR hopes.

That’s the problem isn’t it - HIS will versus OUR hopes.

See there’s nothing wrong with a lot of the lists we make. It’s not bad to have ambitious goals and dreams. I certainly still have several things I hope to work on in 2023. But if our main objective for an entire year is the things OUR heart desires, I fear we miss out on the incredible wealth of growth GOD has for us.

So this year, my main resolution is to seek obedience, let go of my selfish ambitions, and SURRENDER to God’s will. Jesus explained this powerfully in Matthew chapter 16.

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

- Matthew 16:24-25

As Jesus began to prepare his disciples for his looming death, he gave powerful instructions for what it means to follow him. “Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me.”

Nowadays, the cross is a beautiful symbol of hope and love, but when Jesus was telling this to his disciples, a cross wasn’t a sign of resurrection yet. The cross represented torturous death. Because the Romans forced criminals to carry their own crosses to the place of crucifixion, bearing a cross meant being ridiculed and humiliated while carrying their own execution device to their death.

Therefore, “Take up your cross and follow Me” means being willing to die in order to follow Jesus.

It is a call to absolute surrender.

On our cross we crucify our own interests and selfish ambitions, and carry the cross in the face of humiliation, ridicule, and even death in order to follow Jesus. The instructions given in Matthew 16 are a radical command to follow Christ above all no matter the consequences. Because, as verse 25 tells us, prioritizing our life and this world will result in death. But following Jesus above all promises us eternal life.

This isn’t the attractive pep talk we often hear when January rolls around.

It’s easy for us to glamorize the life of a Christ-follower. But ultimately, Jesus asks us: “Are you willing to lose it all for me? Because then you will gain everything you truly need.”

So that’s my resolution this year. It’s not a list of things I want to add, it’s a willingness to lose it all for Jesus. I want to die to myself so I can live for him. It’s a scary goal, because the process can be painful. But the reward outweighs the cost.

Friend, the resolutions are great, but don’t miss out on what God is inviting you into. If you seek your interests above His, none of it will satisfy. Even if you check it all off the list, you’ll look back on December 31, 2023 feeling emptier than ever before.

But, if you are willing to take up your cross, if your heart is open to surrender to your Savior, you are promised eternal joy, love and union with Him.

Don’t miss it this New Year. Don’t enter another year seeking yourself above your Savior. Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Him. Surrender the list. Surrender the dreams.

He’ll give you so much more than you could ever imagine.

Cristina Schmitter

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